GERARD LEE BEVAN.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17365, 29 March 1928, Page 5

GERARD LEE BEVAN.

OUT OF PENAL SERVITUDE. AFTER FIVE. YEARS. Frauds which shook London in 1922 are recalled by -the release from Maidstone Prison, alter five years, of Gerard Lee Bevan, the financier. The frauds were committed in oonneetion with the City Equitable Fire Insurance Company, of which Bevan was chairman, and associated companies. Indicated on charges of issuing false balance sheets, publishing ■a false prospectus, fraudulent conversion, and obtaining money toy false pretences, Bevan was found guilty on 15j of 16 counts, and sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. Mr Justice Avory, at the trial, remarked that. Bevan had not only brought financial ruin •on individuals but had injured the commercial reputation of the City. His -arrest in dramatic circumstances in Vienna, after he had fled the country in disguise, created a wide sensation. He was then living in an hotel at. Vienna under an assumed name, and had dyed his hair and was wearing a black beard. He was very violent at his arrest, and had to serve a short sentence abroad for assaulting the detectives. While at Maidstone Prison, Bevan w*as employed in the printing department, and on occasions lectured to his fellow-prisoners. His conduot was satisfactory, and he earned the regulation three months' remission of every year of his sentence. lie came quietly and secretly out of Maidstone at. six o'clock in the morning. At. that hour a high-powered motor-car was pulled up outside the prison gates. Almost immediately Bevan stepped through the small prison doorway and ran across the pavement lo the waiting car. He wore a heavy ulster, was closely muffled, and carried two brown paper parcels and an attach e-ca.se. Within five minutes the car was speeding towards London. Bevan. it is understood, intends to live in future at Biarritz.